Won't you come down?
She said
Come down
To my family reunion
Come down
You can meet my dad
You can see my home
They are the reason
My love gets strong
The bar I haunted
Before there was you

Won't you come down?
She said
Come down
To my holiday at home
This is the room
The chair he sat in
Now it's powder-burn blue
This is where it happened
And that's my sister
And her husband the bastard
She smiles at his mustache
It's his latest disaster
My sister used to get high
She used to make a sound
Now she's sweet and low
When he's around
But she's happy for me
Because I found you

You see how the time is frozen pools
Is this how we're gonna get if we get old?
I don't know

Won't you come home?
Come home
To my family reunion
Come home
It's just how we left it
Everything's in place
When you went away
A little shrine was made
And did you see my mother?
Did you see her face?
There are some things
Time won't erase
Ask her if there's something in the kitchen that needs tending to
But she'll say no
Unless she likes you
But you know there's nothing any one of us can do

2 Comments

General CommentOnce David told me this song is not about his own family, but the family of a friend or girlfriend who was celebrating a holiday while mourning a death in the family that was a suicide. It is a great song, and subtle because it doesn't mention suicide at all except for the line about "powder-burn blue," like the powder burns from a rifle or gun. Also the lyric is "See how the time is frozen cold." I think this becasue it rhymes with "old" from the the next line.

General CommentI originally thought the line was "frozen cold," too, but listening really closely it sounds like "pools" to me.

The suicide stuff makes a lot of sense. My initial interpretation of the song was that it was about a family with a history of abuse. The stuff about the sister and her husband, the "They are the reason my love gets strong" line, and the bit about the mother: "Did you see her face? There are some things/Time won't erase." I saw that as a guy being brought to meet his girlfriend's family and discovering the level of dysfunction therein.